The Madman's Room

‘You said it, not I,’ sighed Archibald Hurst. ‘As for me, my biggest regret is that, although for once we found a secret passage at the scene of a crime, it turned out to be irrelevant.’

* * *

‘Bessie!’ exclaimed Brian, staring in agonised surprise at the pages burning in the grate. ‘What are you doing? What’s that book you’re burning?’

Bessie didn’t reply. He picked up the binding of the book, smiled briefly at the title, then rescued the last remaining page from the fire. He extinguished the flame and examined the fragment that had survived. He considered it for several moments, then turned to his wife:

‘One of great-uncle Harvey’s manuscripts?’

‘So it would seem. His signature was on the back page.’

‘Why did you burn it?’ he asked, trembling with emotion.

‘I had to do it, Brian,’ replied Bessie, looking him straight in the eye.

Brian nodded his head in silent agreement.

‘Yes,’ he said slowly, as if in regret, ‘I think you did the right thing. It’s better to forget about it all.’ A sudden eager gleam came into his eyes. ‘Did you… Did you read any of it?’

‘No.’

Once again, Brian examined what was left of the piece of paper. It was the first page of the manuscript. Only the first few lines remained:

What can one expect to find in a coffin?

It sometimes happens that it’s necessary to break ground in a cemetery in order to exhume a body. It’s fairly rare, admittedly, and there has to be good reason to do so.

When the coffin appears in the light of day under the fix….